The Office
by brezoflower
Summary: It's havoc in the office! Uchiha Sasuke is completely unable to concentrate, due to a certain woman who just moved into the office next door...Haruno Sakura. SasuSaku
1. Distraction

_The Office_

Chapter One

_It's just the holiday season, dammit. Why get so worked up over lights?_

The office next to Uchiha Sasuke's was a lonely little room. That is, until _she _exploded into the office with her impossibly pink hair and her neon personality. Usually the formerly unoccupied office was dark, dusty, and even damp when the ceiling leaked after one too many neglected plumber's appointments. Then December rolled around, and Haruno Sakura became positively obsessive about decorating the most depressing place in the building, starting just three weeks before Christmas.

Sasuke was the anti-Sakura; he represented everything she combated with her holiday cheer. Although he was easily the best-looking man in the building, that didn't stop him from fervently repelling people with his reclusive, anti-social personality. He had even been called the office Grinch, named so by those feeling more festive than he during the holidays. Figures they gave him a name associated with hating Christmas. How appropriate.

To be honest, Sasuke couldn't care less about the petty names he had been dubbed. Even less did he care about the woman who had taken on that dark office so recently. Her festiveness was driving him to the edge; she hadn't even said a word to him and already she was annoying him to the point of madness.

The two offices, Sakura's and his own, had been constructed quite strangely when the building was first developed. They were two separate rooms, but there was a door in between connecting them in addition to each room's door leading to the main area. One might have thought the building used to be a hotel, had the rooms been larger. Sasuke's and Sakura's work rarely crossed, so that door never really had to be opened, but today she had decided to open both of her doors, giving him and everyone else in the building a view of what she was doing.

So here she stood in her office right in front of the open conjoining door, bending over at the waist to pick up another strand of lights, completely unaware of the covetous stares she was receiving from the male population of the workplace. That was another thing that annoyed Sasuke about her: she was so wholly ignorant about her surroundings and the people in them. She could get mugged and all she would probably do was smile and wish the guy a merry Christmas.

Haruno Sakura was nothing like the irritable hermit he had expected when he heard someone new was taking the joint office to his. From the moment she arrived, the bundle of energy quickly made her presence known, making friends with the shy girl from Accounting, and charming even that bitchy woman in the farthest cubicle down the room. What was her name? I-something. It had started with an I…

"Hey, Ino, can you please send for another box of clear lights?" Sakura called happily down the row of cubicles.

The slim, well-dressed blonde poked her head out from her cubicle, her vibrant hair swinging. "Sure thing," Ino replied, giving Sakura a tight smile. "Just a little busy, though, so it might take about twenty minutes for me to get around to making the call."

"No problem," Sakura answered, a knowing smile gracing her features. "It'll most likely take that long for me to finish with these strands, anyway."

Sasuke, annoyed that he was wasting his time watching the daily, pointless tasks of Haruno Sakura, cast his glance down to the paperwork he was supposed to have sent down two floors long ago. The paper's words arranged themselves into a smirking face the longer he stared at them, snickering at the fact that he would never make sense of them with a certain woman around. So far, he had yet to decipher the first paragraph. If only she wasn't standing where he could see her so plainly through the door…

"Oops," he heard Sakura say cutely, and he once again looked up as she clumsily let a Christmas ornament slip out of her hands. He let out a low, irritated growl.

Sakura pursed her plum-glossed lips when the ornament rolled out of her reach and under a desk. Sasuke winced as she settled down on her knees, reaching an arm under the desk as she fumbled around for the little round ornament. With a small triumphant grin, she pulled out the offensive object, a shockingly neon red ball held up by a cheap metal hook.

_Paperwork. Concentrate on the paperwork,_ Sasuke told himself.

"Hey, Sasuke," she called cheerfully to him, and he gave a start as he realized that she had just caught him watching her.

"Hello," Sasuke gruffly replied, shooting her a frown to indicate that she should be concentrating on her work rather than on making her office seem less full of despair than it really was. It was a wasted effort.

"Are you going to decorate your office, too?" she inquired innocently. She must have known Sasuke was not the type to decorate _anything; _no one was that oblivious. She was either attempting to strike up conversation or finding another method of torturing him out of his mind. Lord knew it was working.

"No."

"Too bad. It could use just a bit of color." She poked her head into his office to survey the room. Although she did not voice her thoughts Sasuke could read them in the speech bubble appearing above her head;_ Pretty lights, ribbons, garlands, glitter, happiness! _Any minute now and she would be adding rainbows and unicorns to the mix.

"Look, don't you have any projects to finish up?" He asked to deliberately interrupt her daydreaming.

Sakura shook her head, that bubbly, excited light never fading from her eyes. "I've had a pretty light workload lately, and so I've had plenty of time to do things like this." She gestured to the garlands now flamboyantly adorning her walls, and the small, perfectly office-sized tree in the right front corner of the room. Upon closer inspection he could see the miniature wreath pinned to the front of her door. She was turning it into a theme park.

Light workload? Of course she had a light workload. Although why it was so much lighter than Sasuke's happened to be a mystery.

Speaking of him not having a light workload…

"Can you close the door?" Sasuke asked, glaring at her. "I need to get work done, and all this sparkly junk is distracting me."

Sakura's smile faded, much to his satisfaction, and she set down the string of multicolored lights she was holding. She muttered something barely audible that sounded like "grouch" before walking over to the door. Sasuke felt the smirk slip right off his face.

"You know, you could at least _try _smiling once, Grinch," she commented with a childish roll of her eyes. Had she been younger she might have stuck her tongue out at him.

"I've got an image to uphold," he told her matter-of-factly. "Since I'll never get around to stealing Christmas with this amount of work I can at least look the part." He glanced at his watch to unsubtly indicate she was wasting his time, and it was clear their conversation was over. The last thing he saw before Sakura shut the door on him was her exasperated, deflated look. He had punctured her happy little bubble, even if just a little. Good.

Sighing, he gathered his paperwork together, clunking the bottom edges of the paper against the hard oak of his desk to straighten them. He hadn't made a single dent in his work, nothing since he started that morning. If little Miss Haruno couldn't keep her bright lights and cheerful mood on her side of the door, then he would have to take action. She called him the Grinch, but she didn't know the half of it.

Without warning, the regular door to his office flew open.

"Sasuke, I really need you to pick something up for me—" Ino started, barreling through the door and lowering Sasuke's tolerance level for the day considerably. "Oh. You're busy?"

"Aren't I always?" Sasuke snapped. Politeness be damned; he was about to show the same ferocity as a coffee addict without his morning latte. Speaking of, he hadn't had his coffee today either. Ino seemed to sense this, and took a tentative step backwards.

"If it's not too much trouble," Ino continued cautiously, drawing a pattern in the carpet with the toe of her Prada shoe (how did she ever afford those?), "I'd really appreciate it if you could pick up a pack of clear Christmas lights I just ordered—"

"No," Sasuke quickly cut in, glaring. "I am not going to get involved with Sakura's little holiday program. You want to help her out, go pick them up yourself."

"You know, Sakura's right, you really are a Grinch," Ino said immediately, wagging a perfectly manicured finger at him with a coquettish smile. "Someone really ought to schedule your doctor's appointment early just to see if your heart really is two sizes too small."

"Out," Sasuke replied savagely. This woman was testing his patience; sometimes he wondered whether she did it as a hobby. It was like seeing how close a person could hold a match to a fuse without invoking the wrath of the bomb.

Wordlessly, Ino left, any possible protest she could have had dying on her lips at the sight of Sasuke's scowl. She shut the door behind her, those annoying heels of hers clinking with every step.

Sasuke wondered how many other people had heard about the nickname Sakura had so graciously given him. Oh, sure, he deserved it, but no one was allowed to admit this but him. The only person he had let get away with calling him that so far was Sakura, and he wasn't about to let it slide the next time it happened. Sasuke somehow knew that it wouldn't be the last time she inflicted her dim-witted holiday humor on him.

"Hey, it was a small favor," Sakura suddenly said as she came through the side door, frowning at him. "It was just some lights. What was the big deal?"

"Funny; it wasn't quite mentioned in the job description that I would be required to run pointless errands for my underlings," Sasuke said smoothly, concealing his irritation solely because she got riled up more easily when he was cool and collected—and he definitely enjoyed riling her up.

It worked. She was so predictable. "First of all, it's not a pointless errand, though it was the simplest thing in the world. Second of all," she gave a fierce glare that could rival his, which was a rather impressive achievement, "Ino asked you the favor for _me_. And I am definitely _not _your underling."

Sasuke smirked, leaning back in his chair. "You've been on the job for only two weeks now and already you're reprimanding me? Haven't you heard of establishing good relations with coworkers?"

"Good relations? You?" Sakura folded her arms. "Don't even start," she said dangerously. "I'd rather not have another day ruined by the great Uchiha Sasuke."

Despite the fact that Sasuke's inner voice was spitting, _I don't have time for this, _he was up for a good verbal sparring match. "Oh, this isn't the first time?" he asked with a terrible impersonation of innocence. "I'm flattered." Sasuke raised a hand to his navy blue tie as if her words had truly touched him. He knew Sakura was used to his type—all mocking and no true bite behind his words.

"I'll get the lights myself. Happy now?" Sakura said. Sasuke was a little disappointed, because her sentence was a cue that she was ending the battle so soon.

He furtively stole a glance at his inbox. Nothing was getting done, and he was about to dismiss it as a lost cause anyway. It was worth sacrificing a little just to fight with Sakura a while longer.

"You know, I think I'll go get the lights," he said as he sat up and groaned a little as his stiff muscles protested. He had not moved all day, and now he was paying for it. He had to grin at Sakura's surprised expression.

"Y-you will?" she sputtered, clearly wrong-footed. His half-smirk revealed all the smugness he felt.

"That's what I said, wasn't it?" He raised a sardonic eyebrow at her. And without bothering to explain why he was doing such a thing, he headed out of the office.

Sasuke's paperwork was a lost cause.

And he was out of his office.

Damn her.


	2. The Tie

_The Office_

Chapter Two

The holidays passed much too quickly for Haruno Sakura, as there had just been so much for her to do: setting up the office gift exchange, making sure that all of floor three had been properly decorated, keeping up with her work, and generally keeping everyone else in the Christmas spirit. The last task had quickly proved to be the most difficult, as the irritating hermit who inhabited the office connected to hers seemed determined to stay in a sulky mood the whole season. Sakura didn't know what exactly spurred him to act the way he did, but it dragged her mood down with his on occasion. For some infuriating reason he seemed to enjoy this.

Uchiha Sasuke was a bit of a mystery to her, and Sakura simply could not make heads or tails of him. The closest thing she'd seen to a happy emotion on his face was a smirk, and those appeared most often when he was annoying her. Everything about him screamed 'recluse'—from his dark, midnight hair coolly swept back to his obviously expensive black suit. Or maybe it was just the "don't screw with me" vibe he emanated on a daily basis.

Sakura stole a peek at him from her desk, as she had 'accidentally' left the door connecting their offices open. She figured that some of the light from her office would filter into his; he worked under the dim light of his desk lamp only. That couldn't be good for his eyes.

Unfortunately, from where she was sitting, only the front corners of Sasuke's desk were visible. It suddenly occurred to Sakura that she had never seen him truly at work, when he was deep in concentration. She had only walked in during moments when someone else had already aggravated him, his concentration broken and his temper flaring. Ino seemed to be his newest annoyance. Sakura's closest workplace friend thoroughly enjoyed bursting into his office, not meaning to disturb him but finding any excuse possible to see him. It took a lot to keep Sakura from laughing in Ino's presence; Ino clearly harbored a massive crush on the man.

Sakura blew out a loud sigh. Well, if she couldn't see him, then she might as well return to her work. Or…her Spider Solitaire game. Her drive to get things done had led her to tackle her work the second it was practically chucked at her, even if it had caused her to work much later than her colleagues. _Let's see…_Sakura thought. _I've finished typing up that advertisement the boss wanted by Friday, and I've come up with several ideas for the next magazine ad…_Sakura rattled off all her accomplished tasks in her head, ticking them off on her fingers as she did so. She received a shock when she ran out of fingers. _Wow. I guess I've done quite a lot lately._

She buried her face in her hands as she matched the last set of cards, winning the game for the fourth time in a row. That was it. Something had to be done. This was ridiculous; how had her boss somehow magically run out of projects to give her? Did he think she couldn't handle more than one at a time? Should she pay him a visit to discuss her workload?

"Miss Haruno," Sasuke's deep voice rumbled from his office, startling her out of her thoughts. "Can you get in here for a minute?"

Sakura scowled. Ino hadn't even had the pleasure of annoying him today, and he was already in his trademark mood.

"Yes? Would you like me to bring you a little bell, so you can just ring for me?" She raised her eyebrows at her own remark. Perhaps he was rubbing off on her a little.

"Not today, Haruno." Sasuke's tone held a warning note, indicating that today was not going to be fun for either of them. "I want you to get something for me."

"Calling in a favor after the lights I made you deliver?" Sakura asked him. Her peppiness had been drained out of her by her intense boredom, so she wasn't in the mood to exchange sarcastic remarks any more than he was.

"You know very well that was voluntary. Here." Sasuke set a stack of papers at the front of his desk, furthering Sakura's impatience with him. The man was so arrogant! She didn't know why he couldn't simply stand up and hand them to her like a normal human being.

"What?" Sakura asked.

"Take these to Ino." Such a man of few words—Sakura hated that. However, she couldn't help but smirk as she realized the reason he had called her in. By getting Sakura to run the papers over to her, Sasuke could avoid interacting with Ino completely.

"You owe me." Walking over and scooping up the papers, Sakura glanced up at him. _Funny, _she thought. _He always wears the same blue tie._

Instead of turning around and leaving, she straightened and smirked. "Why are you in such an awful mood this early in the morning?" she asked.

"You don't need to know." Sasuke's voice was curt and to the point. "Can you just deliver those?"

"So, there is a reason," Sakura pressed, curiosity sparked. "What exactly could annoy you more than Ino before ten o-clock?" She gently set the stack of paperwork down and paced, a finger to her chin. "You haven't had your morning cup of coffee yet." Her eyes lit up as she teasingly grinned at him. "Or did you discover some gray hairs?"

"Don't be ridiculous, I'm not getting that old," Sasuke snapped. _A little touchy? _Sakura asked herself. He seemed to be reassuring himself more than her…

"Well? Then what is it?"

Sasuke glared at her, pulling the arm of his suit straight where it had wrinkled. "What will it take to get you to leave?"

Far from being repelled by his rude manner, Sakura was intrigued. "I'll leave if you tell me what's bothering you."

A frustrated sigh escaped Sasuke's lips, and Sakura gave a satisfied smile. He was giving in, she could tell. Sasuke paused before answering.

"Too much to do and not enough coffee. Now go away."

Despite this being a perfectly reasonable excuse, Sakura somehow knew he was lying.

"Gotcha." Sakura turned on her heel, grabbing the papers on her way out. "Don't worry, I'll fix that." She caught sight of Sasuke's confused expression as her words registered. "Don't worry about it, kay?" With that, she walked out, leaving his front office door open on purpose.

"It's from Sasu-kun?" Ino asked excitedly as Sakura set the impressive stack on Ino's desk. "Why couldn't he have brought them himself? Would've done him some good if you ask me. I'll bet he's literally shackled to that desk." She licked her thumb and flipped through the papers. "Sakura, next time you see him you're checking his ankle for a ball and chain."

"He's a hermit," Sakura replied without missing a beat. Surely she couldn't tell Ino that Sasuke was avoiding her with a passion. "And I believe he prefers it if you call him 'Uchiha-san,'" she added with a grin.

"Nah, Sasu-kun is just fine with me. It's cute." Ino said triumphantly, as if Sasuke himself had given her permission to call him by that name.

_Mental note, _Sakura thought, _use that name at first opportunity to see how much it drives him crazy. _"Could you ever imagine Sasuke as "cute?"" she asked with a grin. "I need to head back. Lots of work to do, you know." Briskly walking away, she sped toward her destination—the break room.

Sakura saw Sasuke look up from his desk as she came in, a cup of steaming hot coffee in her hand. Wordlessly she set it down next to his desk lamp, enjoying the surprise that crossed his face.

"So there. All better," she said happily. "Now you can go back to just being irritable, instead of being downright cranky."

Sasuke, speechless for the first time in months, gazed down at the black mug filled with wonderful caffeine. Sakura watched with growing amusement as it dawned on him.

"This is already a third empty!" Sasuke accused, looking up at her incredulously. Glancing down again, his suspicions were confirmed as he located the tiny pink ring that her lip gloss had made on the rim of the mug. "You drank out of it!"

"The elevator took forever!" Sakura said defensively. "God forbid you get any cooties." She waved her hand dismissively on her way out the door. "Anyway, I need to get back to work." She stopped and gave him a final glance over her shoulder. "Enjoy the coffee."

Sasuke could hear her chuckling at him from her desk as he attempted to focus once more. The shock of her appearing so suddenly bearing coffee had finally worn off, and he was left with a numb feeling of relief that she was gone. He really couldn't afford her distracting him once more.

He raised the mug, peering into its hazelnut depths. He guessed two packets of creamer, a few packets of sugar, and just a hint of lip gloss.

He expected to become angry with her, even though she had gone to the trouble of bringing the mug to him. Unfortunately for him, his emotions decided to have a mind of their own, as pleasure unfurled in his stomach. Her gesture was, for some reason, sexy, and he had yet to figure out why.

Placing his lips over the lip gloss ring she had left behind, he drank, inhaling the warm vanilla and hazelnut scent drifting into his nose.

Hmmm. Whether she meant it to or not, her lip gloss added a flavor to the coffee that the old Columbian just couldn't outdo. Sasuke wondered whether he could convince Sakura to bring him half-empty coffee every morning.

"Sakura." Sakura's ears perked up as Sasuke called to her from his office. She could easily hear him from her own, as their door was still wide open. Sasuke hadn't bothered to shut it yet, she noticed, feeling triumphant.

"What is it?" He was going to reprimand her about the coffee, she knew it. Too bad she didn't really care. In fact, she couldn't wait to hear what exactly he had to say about the matter.

"I lied about the problem."

Sakura gave a start. What?

"I'm turning thirty tomorrow."

Silence. The air was so heavy with it that when she broke the tension she could actually hear him jump when she spoke.

"Ah!" she squealed, her exclamation followed by peals of loud laughter.

"Sakura." Now Sasuke's voice was reprimanding. "I bother to tell you, and this is how you show your concern?"

"_Concern?_" Now she was positively howling. Breathing at a fast pace, she struggled to calm herself down. "Okay, I realize that was a bit unprofessional on my part—" Sasuke, unprofessionally, snorted—"But really, thirty is not a reason to have a conniption. Granted, it is a milestone, but you should be celebrating!"

Sasuke's sour growl back told her he did not appreciate the use of the word "milestone." He was a man married to his career; she guessed that for all of his work at the company, his sense of accomplishment was rather low at the moment, whereas she had danced into the same position a few years after college. She was a walking reminder that he should be farther up the job ladder by now, and she supposed she could show a little sympathy for that.

"Well, happy birthday, okay?" Sakura said, and then spoke not another word on the subject. She noticed with satisfaction that he was finally able to concentrate for the first time that day.

The next day, Sasuke was surprised to see Sakura already hard at work in her office as he came in. Prompt as always, he had arrived at eight-thirty. They were supposed to be at work at nine; Sakura was never there before him. Puzzled, Sasuke settled into his chair and set his briefcase down.

"Wha—" A small package lie on his desk, with a yellow Post-It note on the front that read simply "Sakura."

"Happy birthday," Sakura said loudly from her office, a smile evident in her voice.

Bewildered, Sasuke took out an envelope opener, gently sliced the brilliantly red wrapping paper in careful strokes, and held the revealed object in his hands. It was a black tie, diagonally striped with intensely bright yellow lines.

Sasuke glanced down at his own navy blue tie. He always wore the same one every day, wearing one strictly out of necessity. Being original with his ties never occurred to him, at least not until this moment. The new tie blended comfort and originality in a single dose with its familiar black shade streaked with yellow that screamed color. It was a perfect compromise between their personalities.

Surely she did not expect him to put this on. It was so far from anything he would have chosen on his own; the message was so distinctly _Sakura, _while at the same time maintaining the proper amount of workplace professionalism.

Sasuke threw his head back and laughed.

The next morning Sakura sipped her coffee in satisfaction, an involuntary grin tugging at her lips. She had made the great Uchiha Sasuke laugh. She had made workplace history. Ino would forever be envious.

She spotted Sasuke walk past, eyes straight ahead, but something stopped him. Pausing at her door, he glanced at her sideways.

"Morning," he grunted, and stalked back to his office. She didn't miss the almost imperceptible smile he wore—but that wasn't the only thing.

Sakura glimpsed a flash of color and immediately choked on her coffee.

"Well, don't start seizing just because I happened to look at you," Sasuke called sarcastically from beyond the open conjoining door. Sakura coughed unsteadily until her lungs were blissfully clear.

"As if I'd notice you looking, you ass," she commented back, but there was no maliciousness in her voice. Not this time.

He was wearing the tie.

That deserved a cup of half-empty coffee, she decided. Hazelnut with just a hint of lip gloss.


	3. Ack

The Office

Chapter Three

Sakura sighed. Not even her drive to get things done would get her out of having to work an insane amount of overtime. She was just sitting innocently at her desk, playing Spider Solitaire, when it happened. Her boss had called Sakura into her office to _talk_.

At first, Sakura panicked. Had she done anything wrong? Judging by her boss's smooth but firm tone, something was on her mind. Sakura had had a sinking feeling; she wasn't going to like this.

To her immense relief, she wasn't fired. Instead, she was faced with a mountainous load of work all piled onto her at once. It would take a shovel made of pure determination to dig her out if it.

Her boss had assigned her three projects. Three! And all of them had deadlines so close that Sakura got cross-eyed just looking at them.

So for the first time in months, she was working late. Her shift usually ended at six, yet here she still was, hunched over her desk and staring at the impossibly complex tasks before her. Aside from the dim glow of her desk lamp, her computer screen bore the only light in the room. She hadn't bothered to turn the main light on; Sakura supposed her office closely resembled Sasuke's at the moment.

_Sasuke. Ugh. _Sakura did _not _want to think about him. Sasuke had withdrawn into his office again that day, not even bothering to talk to her until he found out that one of the projects assigned to him had been assigned to her as well. Even then, all he had done was shove basic contact information at her, in case she "felt the need to disturb him after work hours." Translation: Sooner or later, they would have to tackle the project together, so if it had to be outside of work she'd now know how to reach him. Indirect and rude. Still, he was the only person who once in a while saved her from workplace boredom.

After hours of seemingly unproductive work, Sakura set down her mug of now cold green tea and rested her forehead on her palm, loose strands of hair spilling over her fingers. It was nine fifteen; time to finish up. Actually, she should have finished up a long time ago.

Carefully sweeping her array of papers into one disorganized pile, she attempted to put some of them in order. She turned her briefcase on its side and placed her papers on top of it, balancing her tea mug haphazardly on the fluttering white stack. Lord knew how she was going to get this out the door. Poor Sakura had to grip it all on one arm while fumbling with her keys to lock her office. The janitor had already shut off half of the lights in the building, and this only made it increasingly more difficult to see the stubborn little keyhole.

Maneuvering her pile of work out to the car made her wish she had been born with the grace of her sisters, instead of with the clumsiness she so dangerously possessed. She unlocked her car and swung open the car door, and winced as her tea mug finally toppled off the top of the stack and crashed to the ground. Crap. Sakura had to admire the large navy shards it shattered into; she could attach an emotion to each of them. _That one's for my frustration with my sudden workload, _she thought. _And that one is the despair I feel about making those deadlines. That one's for my stress, and that one's for how tired I am… _She deliberately stepped on the pieces with the toe of her high heels, gaining a strange sort of satisfaction from the crunching sound they made beneath her foot. Abandoning the pieces and sliding into her car, she set her pile of work down and started the ignition.

Vroom, splutter, splutter.

_Oh, no, not now. _

_Vroom, thwacka thwacka. _

"Come on, baby, don't do this," she pleaded with her car. She tried starting it again, but no success. Sakura groaned, resting her arms on her steering wheel and staring out the windshield.

"What am I gonna do now?"

Sasuke Uchiha rubbed a towel vigorously through his dark hair, beads of water dripping off his bangs onto his shirt, the fabric soaking up the moisture. He closed the bathroom door to hear the professional jingle of his cell phone traveling from the nightstand. Who could be calling now?

"Hello?" Sasuke said gruffly, cursing as the phone nearly slipped through his wet fingers.

"…Mr. Uchiha?" a tentative voice spoke, sounding feminine and worried.

"Miss Haruno?" Sasuke could not hide his surprise that she of all people would be calling him.

"I know it's a lot to ask, but…are you busy?"

If Sasuke didn't know better, he'd have thought she was going to ask him out.

"My car broke down."

Oh. "Where do you need to be picked up?" asked Sasuke, running a hand through his damp hair.

Sakura smiled. He was always straight to the point. "I'm still in the parking lot. I worked late, so…"

"You couldn't have called your family?" Sasuke questioned rudely. There he went again, thought Sakura.

"They'll be sleeping right now. Your number was on that contact sheet you gave me, and I couldn't think of anyone else."

Sasuke decided not to point out that the contact sheet she had received was supposed to be for business purposes only. "They fall asleep before nine? That's strange."

"You don't know my family." Over the phone, Sasuke could hear Sakura exhale sharply.

"I'll be there." And with no further questions, he hung up.

Sakura stepped out of her car and shut the door, leaning against the side. She was alone in the dark parking lot, with only the dim shine of the streetlights to keep her company. Somewhere far off to her left, a dog barked.

_There is absolutely no point in staying here, _Sakura thought. _Sasuke won't be here for a while, and I'm craving something stiff. _The small, devastatingly old bar down the street caught her attention, as it was the only place still open on the block. Everywhere closed early these days. Sakura's first instinct was '_No.' _The bar looked like a slight breeze would end its existence entirely. The painting on the loose boards was peeled beyond repair, the windows were cracked…oh, for Pete's sake, both of the 'r's on the "Joe's Bar and Grill" sign were out. But the other side of Sakura's mind was crying out for a calming drink, and in her state alcohol was too tempting to pass up.

Sasuke swung the door to the little tavern open so forcefully that he was afraid it might fall off of its hinges. _Wouldn't take much, _he thought, noting the quality of the place. The inside of the bar was just as grubby as the outside, but the customers didn't seem to mind. Or rather, the burly men in the dirty dark corner table didn't seem to mind. The rest of the establishment was completely devoid of people, except for the person sitting on a barstool at the counter. Sasuke breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sakura," he called. She turned to look at him, a dopey smile plastered across her features, mug in hand.

_Oh, no._

"Heyyy, you found me!" Sakura responded cheerfully, swinging her legs back and forth on the stool.

"You're drunk," Sasuke stated obviously.

"Nooo," Sakura answered, flicking her wrist in his direction as if the idea was ridiculous. She tried to stand to go meet him, but she stumbled. Sasuke immediately rushed over to catch her, but slightly off timing resulted in him grabbing her arm and shoulder and her knee banging on the floor.

"Owww," Sakura moaned. "Why'd you do that?"

"You fell, Sakura," Sasuke said, using her first name and talking to her as if she were a naughty third-grader.

"I'm not drunk," Sakura said, trying to reassure him, but the slow, uneasy sound of her words may have given her away.

"Sure you're not," Sasuke replied sarcastically, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to steady her. "Good lord, woman, it didn't take you long, did it?"

"To get drunk? Nah, took about twenty minutes." Sakura stopped and looked at him. "I'm not drunk."

"I'm getting you to the car."

Sakura giggled hysterically at everything as they made their way out of the bar. The fact that she couldn't seem to walk only made things funnier to her. Sasuke opened the passenger side door of his sleek black car (Sakura couldn't identify the model) with his free hand and plunked her down on the seat, shutting the door behind her.

"Thanks for coming," Sakura said as Sasuke started the engine, sounding like a game show host. "If you hadn't come, I would've been _stuck._" She said the word "stuck" like a six-year-old might have said "muck," like it was exciting and gross at the same time.

"Explain to me how you ended up drinking so much," Sasuke said in monotone. To his displeasure, Sakura started giggling again.

"W-well…my car died, I walked into that _dump _(Sasuke guessed she was referring to the bar), and told the _person _that I wanted something strong. Whatever it was, it was good, so I ordered three more…"

Sasuke sighed. She was hopeless.

"By the way, you look good, your clothes," Sakura commented. Sasuke flinched at the unexpected compliment.

"Kinda dressed like an overgrown teenager."

Well. There went any warm feeling Sasuke might have had. He glanced down at his apparel. Loose-fitting casual jeans paired with a black T-shirt to match his hair. Oh, lord, she was right. This was the first time Sakura had seen him outside of work, and she was just drunk enough to fully speak her mind.

"Hey Sasuke-kun?" Fresh giggles erupted from her mouth. "Sorry. Carol calls you that when you're not around. I thought I'd try it out." Seeing Sasuke's puzzled expression, she added, "I take it you don't like it?"

Sasuke said nothing. He now had yet another reason to hate Carol.

"Amnyways," she continued, stumbling over her words, "what I wanted to ask was, why are you always so cold?"

Sasuke stiffened. "What do you mean?" he asked uncertainly.

"You know," Sakura said casually, swaying slightly. "The way you're always so gruff and distant. Even when I bring you coffee you barely say thanks or anything."

Sasuke felt a twinge of guilt, but didn't mention it. "There's no reason," he said defensively.

"Of course there is. I've been…_speculating _for a while now (Sakura giggled at the big word), and I have a few guesses, but I don't _really _know."

The male next to her sighed. _She's not likely to remember tonight anyway, _he reasoned. _No harm in opening up just a little. I may owe it to her a little, seeing as she's obviously hurt by my actions around her._

"It's hard to explain."

"I'm still listening." Sakura propped her head on her hands, her elbows resting on her knees as she stared intently.

Sasuke coughed. This would be awkward, not to mention difficult. He reminded himself to breathe, telling himself that it would be okay. Talking about it after years of keeping silent was something he just had to do eventually.

"I…I was married three years ago."

"Sasuke Uchiha, married?" Sakura said incredulously, her eyes wide.

"Yes. She died of leukemia that same year."

Sakura's face twisted into a pained expression, and she placed a hand on Sasuke's arm. Sasuke gently moved his arm out of her reach. He kept silent, but the air was too tense for the conversation to be at an end.

"There's more, isn't there?" Sakura asked seriously. Even when she was under the influence, Sasuke noticed that she was still incredibly perceptive.

"Well, my parents eventually called, two months after it happened." Sasuke's tone turned bitter and resentful. "And all they called for was to express their disapproval of her anyway, and…" He took a deep breath and released it. "And that they hoped I wouldn't make the same mistake next time."

"Oh, Sasuke."

Sasuke avoided her sympathetic gaze and instead focused his eyes on the road ahead. He couldn't handle her sympathy.

The car slowed to a stop in front of Sakura's apartment, and the two sat there in silence.

"Well…thank you," Sakura said. She giggled sheepishly. "I promise this won't happen again."

"It better not," Sasuke warned, taking off his seat belt. "Because next time I might not rescue y—"

Sakura had worked free of her seat belt and had leaned over the stick shift, and had captured Sasuke's lips mid-sentence with her own. At first she was shy and cautious, but as soon as she was sure he wasn't pulling away she kissed him harder, resting her weight on her arm to keep herself upright.

For a moment Sasuke could only sit there in shock, all too aware of Sakura's glossed lips moving against his. And then he was responding, lifting his hand to the base of her neck and pulling her closer. He opened her mouth and she grabbed a fistful of his overgrown-teenager shirt, leaning on him and running the fingers of her free hand through his hair.

_This is Sakura, _Sasuke's conscience reprimanded him. _You can't do this, She's your co-worker. Besides, she's drunk._

_Oh, God, she's drunk, _he suddenly remembered. He was stupid. He could even taste the alcohol on her tongue.

Grasping her shoulder, Sasuke firmly pushed her back. "That's all you get," he told her. She let out a small whimper of disapproval and reached for him again, but he shoved her back harder, ignoring his own guilt and disappointment.

"Sakura, you're drunk. Think about what you're doing."

"I'm _not _drunk," she insisted, but Sasuke had already exited the car and was opening the passenger door for her.

"Try to make it up to your room on your own, okay?" he instructed. "You're going to have a hell of a hangover tomorrow. Good thing it'll be a Saturday."

Sakura pouted, managing to get herself out of the car and onto the sidewalk. "Okay," she mumbled grudgingly.

Sasuke gave her one last concerned look before getting back into his car. Sakura watched him drive off, looking sad and exhausted.

Sasuke hoped she wouldn't remember anything come tomorrow morning. The still had a project to work on. Speaking of…_I'll have to call her tomorrow to see if she's well enough to work on that, won't I? _he rationalized, smirking. _That ought to be fun._

The next morning, Sakura was roused from her sleep by a shooting pain in her head. Groaning, she rolled over in her blankets as she realized she was horribly hung over. Through the hazy fog of her thoughts, one memory drifted to the front of her consciousness.

She immediately sat up, and then wished she hadn't after her head started spinning. Her neighbors woke to an ear-piercing shriek emitting from Sakura's apartment

"Good God, I kissed him!"


End file.
